FLORIDA To Investigate ACORN FRAUD?

It makes sense that ACORN would be operating in Florida. After all with all of the old people living there, there must also be a wealth of ACORN favorite voters, dead people. Brevard State Attorney Norm Wolfinger has been investigating ACORN for awhile, but now wants to turn it over to the state attorney general for a statewide investigation:

BY JIM ASHFLORIDA TODAYTALLAHASSEE — Brevard State Attorney Norm Wolfinger said today that he is considering handing off a controversial investigation into possible voter fraud by the group ACORN to the statewide prosecutor.“Right now, we are trying to determine the appropriate jurisdiction,” Wolfinger said. “There is a lot of investigative work to run these things down.”

Founded in 1970 in Little Rock, Ark., the group advocates for a host of social service causes for low- and moderate-income citizens.

The group has endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and its drive to sign up 1.3 million voters in 21 states has sparked accusations of fraud in Florida and four other swing states. On Thursday, the Associated Press, citing law enforcement sources, reported that the FBI is investigating the group.

Secretary of State Kurt Browning, the state’s top elections official, told Gov. Charlie Crist and the Cabinet on Tuesday that he had seen no evidence of wide spread fraud, but that he had urged local supervisors to turn over any suspicious applications to local prosecutors.

Brevard and Pinellas county supervisors were the only ones to do so, Browning said. At the same Cabinet meeting, Attorney General Bill McCollum expressed “grave” concerns about the reports.

Duwayne Lungdren, Brevard assistant supervisor of elections, estimated that two-thirds of the registrations that ACORN submitted to his office were for people who were already registered to vote.

Wolfinger said today that ACORN is cooperating with prosecutors and that it’s too early to even determine whether all of the suspicious applications can be tied to the group’s efforts.

But he said the case might be better handled by the statewide prosecutor because of the possibility that it could stretch beyond his jurisdiction.

McCollum spokeswoman Sandi Copes confirmed that Wolfinger spoke with the statewide prosecutor’s office today. The office is not permitted to publicly confirm or deny ongoing investigations. But before the statewide prosecutor could pursue a case, it would have be investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

“I don’t believe we have yet provided any information to FDLE,” Copes said.

An ACORN spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Earlier this week, in a conference call with reporters, ACORN organizers denied any wrongdoing by the organization and said they were reporting any suspicious applications submitted by their workers to the proper authorities.